IC INBOX for The Last Voyages

[magician_king]

You know what to do.

Comments

[magician_king]

"Blow me. I mean you actually keep a mental tab on who's on board? Like you know how many inmates and wardens there are right now, and you can match names to faces and everything?"

Says Quentin, who has only recently figured out that Mikodez and Nico are different people.

[kissthatgoodbye]

"If you want," Alec replies casually, popping a piece of fruit into his mouth.

Then pausing halfway through chewing before finishing. "Okay, one: yes I do and yes I can. Two, that doesn't qualify me for being a data geek, that qualifies me for having eyes that work."

[magician_king]

Quentin chokes ever so slightly on his sip of coffee. But it keeps his feathers ever so slightly ruffled, he'll give Alec that.

"So do you know the approximate graduation rate?"

[kissthatgoodbye]

Alec, picking up his orange juice, mutters into drinking it: "How do you want that categorized?"

He's not a geek, you're a geek, shut up.

[magician_king]

"Number of inmates who enter into the system. Amount of them who eventually graduate. Amount of them who leave without graduating. We should probably track the average timespan of the stay of both populations."

He says, swaying his head side to side as he thinks of other measures, ticking off each point mentally.

"Number of wardens who enter the system. Number who leave without achieving a permanent pairing. Number who leave without graduating their permanent. Number who succeed in getting a deal. Average timespan of each. Number of wardens who've gone on to multiple deals."

[kissthatgoodbye]

"Oh, is that all?" Alec asks drily.

Then he pulls his communicator out of his pocket, pulls up a private message to himself, and slides it across to Quentin.

There are a lot of numbers and not much else, arranged with a series of symbols and in an order that only someone that does physics for fun would be able to translate to not every one of those data points, but the necessary figures to work with to get the ones that are missing.

"The last row are percentages of probability for the current population."

[magician_king]

He reads it, and makes the inferences easily, looking up from it to him and smiling.

"Can I publish this? Not the current stuff, the historical data."

[kissthatgoodbye]

Alec nods, holding out his hand so he can forward the appropriate pieces to Quentin's communicator.

"I don't want credit though. Anyone with enough time on their hands and an entrepreneurial spirit can find this."

[magician_king]

"Cool cool."

Agrees Quentin, and smiles, surrendering the device back over.

"I know Jedao has some really good coma data too."

[kissthatgoodbye]

Alec frowns over his communicator screen, plugging in the last few numbers while he's at it, just for completeness sake.

"What's the subject of this book again? I feel like we've tangented off to one side."

[magician_king]

"It's about giving people the answer to their questions. Emotional interpretation is up to the individual, but we can give them the math."

The deepest gift he wishes he'd ever received.

"I need to talk to Bill, too. He tracks this stuff like crazy. If I show him your stuff I bet I can get him to give me- ergo you- his."

[kissthatgoodbye]

"Bill?" Alec makes a face, glancing across at him, but stops his kneejerk reaction because he patently hasn't given Quentin anything that wasn't already public at one time or another.

"Somehow I'm not surprised." It's not a no, anyway.

[magician_king]

"He's trying to crack some kind of morality algorithm."

He says, and shakes his head.

"Which I empathize with."

Sometimes it feels weird to him, too.

[kissthatgoodbye]

"I don't trust him, so I don't talk to him much," Alec admits. To great shock and awe, no doubt.

"He seems like one of those types you can get into trouble without even noticing."

[magician_king]

"He's totally untrustworthy."

He agrees; this has never stopped Quentin.

"I wish I could figure out how to talk him back off the weird edge he's out on, but his brand of batshit is above my paygrade."

[kissthatgoodbye]

"Mine too," Alec agrees. "I don't do hope very well, but mostly I'm just hoping he doesn't jump off that edge while I'm still here, 'cause I got basically nothing for dealing with him."

[magician_king]

"No kidding."

A small smile.

"But things feel kind of okay lately? I'm jinxing it. But is that just me?"

[kissthatgoodbye]

The sharp look that gets isn't one of Alec's usual hamstringing ones, but much subtler, a flick of the wrist rather than a full out punch.

"It's not just you," he admits slowly, but warily.